Justice
by rhhgrt
Summary: In the wake of Sirius Black's arrest, Andromeda waits for justice to be served. Oneshot.


**Justice**

At around eight o' clock on Halloween night, Andromeda, Ted, and Nymphadora Tonks all looked up in surprise as Sirius Black burst into their living room.

"Sirius, what on earth are you doing here?" Andromeda asked as an eight year old Nymphadora launched herself at him.

"I'm just-I…Have any of you seen Peter Pettigrew?" he asked, his voice sounding close to panic, his hands shaking.

Andromeda and Ted looked at him rather oddly.

"Why on earth would we have seen Peter Pettigrew?"

"I don't know, Andy, I just can't find him and I've been looking everywhere," he said, pushing a still shaking hand through his rather messy hair.

He looked over to where his cousin and her husband were sitting; they were looking at him as though he had gone mad. Perhaps he had.

"I have to go. Sorry for disturbing you like this. I'll see you later, Dora," he said to the rather put-out looking little girl as he made his exit, leaving the room's inhabitants staring at the newly closed door, wondering what on earth had just happened.

The next morning they learned the reason for Sirius' panic—or at least, they could guess at it—but they couldn't find him.

The afternoon after that, they heard from him, as did every other citizen of Wizarding Britain; he was splattered across the front page of the Daily Prophet. The next day it was reported that Barty Crouch stated that Sirius Black was to be imprisoned for life, without a trial.

Andromeda found this to be completely unacceptable. She was quite sure that, somehow—although she wasn't sure how—Sirius was innocent. He had to be innocent. The idea that he was secretly a Death Eater alongside Bellatrix, and the idea that he would orchestrate the deaths of his closest friends simply defied logic.

She paced the living room for a while, attempting to determine a plan of action. Finally, she stopped, nodded to herself, grabbed her jacket from its hook by the door, and disapparated.

Twenty minutes later the door of Barty Crouch's office burst open. The people inside the office—Barty Crouch, Cornelius Fudge, Narcissa Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, Rodolphus Lestrange, and Rabastan Lestrange—all turned in surprise as they heard the door open. The woman who had just stormed in barely even seemed to notice the surrounding assemblage.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe that we have an appointment," said Crouch. Andromeda didn't seem to have heard him; instead of responding she walked up to his desk, and unfurled a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"What is this all about, Crouch?" she asked him in a voice that indicated that she meant business as she gestured to the front page.

He raised his eyebrows, looking rather unimpressed.

"I do believe that you know what that is, Ms. Tonks. Otherwise you would not be making this inquiry," he replied, his voice dangerously calm.

"So, you intend upon imprisoning Sirius Black in Azkaban indefinitely and without a trial. Is this correct?"

"Yes. I believe that that is correct."

"I see. Tell me, Mr. Crouch, what was the reasoning behind this decision?"

"Black murdered a street full of muggles in broad daylight. In addition to the use of illegal magic he violated the International Statute of Secrecy."

"Says who?"

"Says the witnesses," he answered in a voice which clearly indicated what he thought of the question, and the intelligence of the woman asking it.

"And who are these witnesses?"

"As you've obviously been keeping up on the Prophet you know who the witnesses are. What is the point of this question?"

"How do you know the witnesses saw what they think they saw? It could have been anyone; it could have been Peter Pettigrew himself."

At this point Crouch abandoned his veneer of calm.

"What on earth are you thinking, woman?"

"The night of the Potter's deaths Sirius came by my home in an utter panic because he could not locate Peter Pettigrew. He was shaking. That's not exactly what I'd expect a 'homicidal maniac'—as the reporters at the Prophet so eloquently put it—to look like."

"That has no impact on this case."

"What case? The term 'case' implies that there is a trial and some form of justice involved in the proceedings."

"I refuse to discuss this any further, Ms. Tonks. Please remove yourself from my office immediately."

Andromeda ignored him.

"You are honestly telling me that you and the Ministry believe that Sirius Black is a Death Eater who chose to blow his cover in the wake of the Dark Lord's destruction? Is that what I am to take from this?" she asked, but continued on without giving him the chance to reply. "Well let me tell you something, Crouch, I've known this man since he was born. I watched him grow up, and I watched him turn his back on Death Eater ideals, and pull himself out of a family which supported those ideals. I watched him throw himself headfirst into the Order of the Phoenix—"

"—You, Ms. Tonks, have been a victim of Sirius Black's superior Occlumency skills, undoubtedly taught to him by the Dark Lord himself."

Andromeda could almost feel the smirks of those surrounding her.

"Sirius does not have the self-control to achieve any noteworthy skill level at Occlumency. He is impulsive, easy to read, and wears his emotions on his sleeve. That is not the profile of a man who would betray his friends and the Order he committed himself to."

"Your emotionally driven statements hold no grounds in this matter Ms. Tonks. Leave now. If I am forced to ask you again I can assure you that I will not be nearly as polite as I am being at the moment."

She once again chose to ignore him.

"Is it money you want, Crouch? I have money. I can pay you off just as well as they did," she said, gesturing to the others standing in the room. "I assume that they paid you off; there's no other explanation as to why they're being allowed to walk free while an innocent man is in Azkaban."

"You will not accuse others and you will not question my authority!" he said, his voices raised and his hand slamming down onto the desk. "My apologies," he said, turning to the Malfoys and the Lestranges. He was undoubtedly afraid that they would be offended by Andromeda's words.

"No need to apologize, Crouch; we're quite accustomed to Ms. Tonks' eccentricities," said Lucius Malfoy in a falsely delicate sort of voice as he inspected his perfectly groomed fingernails. The Lestranges exchanged smirks.

"Oh, this is a status thing, isn't it?" she continued on, completely disregarding Lucius' statement. "You get to increase the gold in your Gringotts account, have powerful members of pure-blood society behind you, and you have the distinction of making one of the first high profile arrests."

At this, Crouch lost whatever veneer of calmness he retained, probably because Andromeda was right.

"Leave my office now or I'll have you thrown out!"

"No need, I'll show myself out," Andromeda sneered as she stepped briskly to the door. She opened it, but then turned around with her hand still on the knob.

"You'll pay for this, Crouch," she hissed, "one day what you've done-what you're doing will come back to haunt you and you will regret the day you threw Sirius Black into Azkaban," by this point, Crouch no longer looked angry; he looked terrified. "I just hope that when that day comes I will be there to see it." With this ominous proclamation, she turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her, leaving a shocked silence in her wake.

The next day she sat on her sofa, staring miserably out of her window while Alice Longbottom sat beside her, attempting to provide some form of comfort.

One month later the Longbottoms were mad, and the Lestranges had been thrown into Azkaban along with Barty Crouch's own son.

Thirteen years later Barty Crouch was dead at the hand of his own son. Andromeda smiled to herself as Sirius gave her the news. The day had come like she had known it would, and she and Sirius were alive and free to enjoy it.

Voldemort was back, but justice was done, and Andromeda was determined to savor it before allowing the presence of the newly returned Dark Lord to cloud her victory.


End file.
